During a heated debate at a full council meeting last Thursday tempers flared and order broke down as insults drowned out chairman Cllr Muriel Long's calls for order.

Shocking figures released last week showed the council had overspent by £1.5 million and would need to save £3 million by cutting costs and services.

The ruckus began after Cllr Frank Browne, the council leader, tabled a motion demanding an immediate and full apology from the previous administration to district residents.

The motion was met with ‘disappointment' by Lib Dem members who remained adamant that the error was a genuine mistake and that blame should wait until ‘diagnostic reports' had been seen.

Most Tory members took the opportunity to lay the blame for the overspend and resulting service cuts on the Lib Dems.

Cllr Liz Siggery asked if they had ever seen the monthly budget reports while Tim Charlesworth said: "Either they deliberately misled the electorate or they didn't understand their own budget."

And leader Cllr Browne repeatedly referred to instances throughout their term where budget bugbears and early warning signs were ignored.

He said: "We saw time and time again the warning flag going up, suggesting that an overspend was likely.

"The Lib Dems should have the same courage of their convictions as when they set the budget. I would like to see them take responsibility and apologise to the electorate."

Cllr Stephen Conway, chairman of the Lib Dem group, said: "I find it most disappointing that the leader of the council has chosen to submit this motion.

"The first sentence seeks to blame the Liberal Democrats for the situation in which the leader now finds himself.

"It seems premature to apportion any blame until we have received a full diagnostic report from the council's officers on the causes of the overspend.

"Shooting from the hip might satisfy the leader's desire to lash his opponents, but a calm and measured response would be more appropriate at this time.

"On April 12 the overspend was calculated to be £36,000."

He added that clearly something "dramatic" occurred between then and the announcement of the ‘much larger' overspend last week.

Labour councillor Nelson Bland said that the motion was "an opportunity to put the boot in, and probably enjoyable, but not getting anyone nearer to solving the problem".

It should be pointed out that there will be no external investigation into the budget shortfall as suggested in last week's coverage of the story.

Liberal Democrats keen to score political points have hit back at a Tory plan to revert the council logo - which was dubbed a ‘squiggle' by many when it was first unveiled - to the original heraldic design.

Saying that the change revealed a ‘distorted sense of priorities' in the current financial situation, the Lib Dem group called for the plans to be scrapped as a waste of public money.